The 2018 NFL season is officially in full swing, which means regular season betting is back. I’m back for another year of picks in the Westgate SuperContest. SB Nation’s partners over at Odds Shark are sponsoring my entry again. The contest requires selecting 5 games each week and picking them against the spread. I finished 2-3 in Week 7, which dropped me to 17-15-3 for the season. Overall for last week, I finished 8-5-1.
The San Francisco 49ers are a SuperContest one-point underdog in their Week 8 road game against the Arizona Cardinals. The SuperContest line is released on Wednesday, and since then, they have climbed to 1.5- and 2-point favorites at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.
I decided to use the 49ers as one of my five picks. There were three reasons I was not certain about the 49ers early in the week. The first is road divisional games can be messy, the second is new Cardinals offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, and the third is the 49ers are so incredibly inconsistent.
All that being said, the 49ers are better than the Cardinals. It’s not exactly saying a lot, but as we saw three weeks ago, the 49ers could dominate the Cardinals if they can avoid stupid mistakes. In Week 5, San Francisco more than doubled them up in yardage and tripled them up in first downs. Five turnovers were the difference, and I am betting on the 49ers cleaning that up to some degree this week. And with only a one point line (SuperContest picks are based on Wednesday lines), I look at this mostly as a straight up pick.
Here are my five SuperContest picks for Week 8.
Jaguars (+3) over Eagles
Ravens (-2) over PANTHERS
GIANTS (PK) over Washington
49ers (-1) over CARDINALS
VIKINGS (PK) over Saints
I went 8-5-1 overall in Week 7. Here are all my picks for Week 8:
TEXANS vs. Dolphins (+7.5): Dolphins — LOSS
Eagles vs. Jaguars (+3 — London): Jaguars
STEELERS vs. Browns (+8): Browns
CHIEFS vs. Broncos (+10): Broncos
BEARS vs. Jets (+7): Jets
GIANTS vs. Washington (PK): Giants
LIONS vs. Seahawks (+3): Seahawks
BENGALS vs. Buccaneers (+4.5): Buccaneers
PANTHERS vs. Ravens (-2): Ravens
RAIDERS vs. Colts (-3): Raiders
CARDINALS vs. 49ers (-1): 49ers
RAMS vs. Packers (+9.5): Rams
VIKINGS vs. Saints (PK): Vikings
BILLS vs. Patriots (-13.5): Patriots